Taking her children to visit their grandparents shouldn’t be a risky adventure, but that’s what it has become for Catherine Srour after a raccoon jumped into her car over the weekend during a visit to their Langlois Avenue home.

Located next to an abandoned, grass-shrouded house, Srour was shocked when the raccoon sprang out of the overgrown grass into the backseat of her car as she opened the door for her four-year-old son and three-year-old daughter.

The startled animal escaped as quickly as it arrived with no physical harm to anyone, but the traumatic event left her children screaming in terror.

“We’ve been calling the city since 2009 about this house,” said Srour, who lives in Forest Glade. “It’s like a forest.

“My dad can stand on the porch and count 10-12 animals in the trees. They used to sit out at night, but now they don’t because of all the animals scurrying across their yard.”

Srour said her parents and three siblings live in the home they purchased in 2001. The problems started when the neighbouring home was abandoned by the owner in 2009.

“My father has called the city so many times about the home he said he’s embarrassed by the number,” Srour said.

“We haven’t seen the owner in years. We don’t even know if he’s alive or where he is.”

Srour’s sister Mirna Hoummad, who still resides at home, said the property at 468 Langlois has caused her family’s world to slowly shrink and their quality of life to evaporate.

“We can’t sit on the left-hand side of our backyard because of the animals in the trees and the horrible smell there,” Hoummad said.

“It’s one of those houses that’s so bad, people come to look at it. People drive by slowly and take pictures.

“It’s embarrassing having people visit. We can’t understand why the city has let this go on.”

Hoummad said she’s called the city four times in the past two weeks and estimates her family collectively has placed 50 calls of complaint. She added the whole neighborhood wants the home demolished because it’s not only an eyesore but a fire and safety hazard.

“We had to have the police remove the homeless people living there,” Hoummad said. “There are drugs and it’s a party house for them.

“You can see through the broken windows it’s full of clothes and junk. It’s like hoarder lives there.

“If it ever catches fire, the whole block will burn down.”

Lee Anne Doyle, the city’s chief building official, said there are 12 complaints on record about the home going back to 2011.

However, they’ve ramped up in the past year with six in 2013 and another two this year.

An order to cut the grass has already been issued to the owner and if that’s not done by Tuesday the city will contract out the job and bill the owner.

Doyle said an inspector is scheduled to go out this week to examine the building’s structure and to secure the premises.

WINDSOR, ON.: JULY 7, 2014 — The home at 468 Langlois in Windsor on July 7, 2014. (Tyler Brownbridge/The Windsor Star)

“This has become a priority this week,” Doyle said. “We want to see if this house belongs on our list for blight mitigation.”

Doyle said part of the issue for the city in tracking this particular case was not all the calls about the home were logged because they didn’t come through the city’s 311 call system. Calls directly to individual departments aren’t all tracked.

“We encourage everyone to go through 311 because those calls will be tracked,” Doyle said. “We want to know about these homes. This house wasn’t on our radar for blight mitigation because of that.

“We have the resources and the legislative tools to deal with these homes.”

Doyle said the city has demolished 42 homes since 2011 under the blight mitigation policy. Those homes had dozens of complaints file on them that served as red flags. Doyle said the list of homes on the blight mitigation list is reviewed quarterly with council giving final approval before the wrecking ball swings.

“It’s gotten better in terms that we’ve been able to knock down some of these places, but there’s always more that pop up to take their spots on the blight mitigation list,” said Halberstadt, who hadn’t heard of the 468 Langlois case.

“I get a lot of derelict house calls, especially since the economy got bad. There are a lot out there and a lot of them are in my ward.

“But the city just can’t go around knocking down houses. We have to respect the legal process.”

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I don’t know about impossible, but given that it’s taken almost 20 years to churn out five instalments of this series – something the early Bond franchise managed in six years, and the 1960s M:I TV show in just six weeks – these missions are certainly a lot of work